First Althea Korea loot + Review

Many beauty bloggers and Butterfly Malaysia have been raving about Althea Korea. This cool new site sells Korean skincare and makeup at the GUARANTEED best price in the market and it ships directly from South Korea if you order more than RM150 worth of products, how awesome is that?! I had to be on the same bandwagon with them so my sister and I shared and ordered a few products to test out.

Our order arrived in less than 2 weeks as stated on the website so YAY for fast shipping! Also if you are unsatisfied with your products, you can return the products unconditonallyyy (cue Katy Perry's hit) in 30 days.

Wrapped in pink packaging and bubble wrapped so it's not damaged during its travel! This is the kind of little things that most online stores should practice because it shows how much you care about your products and it makes us feel at ease too.

Open to a pink lover's paradise with the pink interior and pink tissue papers! All of your items are individually wrapped with bubble wrap for extra ammo too.

I got myself one of the It's Skin serum Power 10 Formula in PO Effector (RM28 ONLY PEOPLE, TELL ME WHERE CAN YOU FIND A SERUM THIS CHEAP? AT Althea Korea of course, DUH!)and it's my first serum too! Here's what it does for your skin according to Althea's website:

Shrinks Enlarged Pores

Targets and shrinks enlarged pores to restore a silky smooth complexion.

Refines Skin Texture

Normalizes sebum production and balances skin's oil and water content.

Quickly Penetrating Formula

Highly concentrated Houttuynia cordata extracts goes deep within skin's layers.

It has a dropper to help you get the serum out so it's more hygienic and it has a very light scent to it.

My Naked face with no filters, just some lighting adjustments and toner and eye-cream. I have a lot of blackheads and whiteheads on my nose area so my T-zone gets oily really fast. So I was hoping this could help to control the oil and shrink them pores.

Just drop 2-3 drops and apply it on your skin. It absorbs really fast and it doesn't leave any greasy feeling at all. Then you can go to your next skincare step.

Before application. Kryptonites aka large pores, sebum and all those heads please leave my face alone now.

After application, my pores doesn't look that obvious anymore! I topped it up with my day moisturizer, Simple Regeneration Age Resisting Day Cream SPF 15 then end it with some spritz of Hydrating Water Mist Rose from RAW FOODS by Wedding Bash. After a long day, my face didn't turn oily super fast like the usual which is a plus and it sort of acted as a primer to make my pores less obvious too!

The second item I got is the Holika Holika Jewel Light Waterproof Eyeliner in Black Gem (RM16). I love the holographic printing on the packaging!

It's a gel pencil and I think I'm suppose to sharpen it once it get's blunt cause I couldn't twist the bottom end.

Swatch on my hand to test it out since my eyes needs some TLC. It's really soft so you don't have to press hard to get the colour out.

The top swatch is when I left it to dry and the bottom swatch I blend it out. This is after washing with water. Looks like it's not waterproof after all and I was hoping I can use this in my waterline to tightline my eyes. I think it will work nice for a smokey eye but will have to top it off with some eyeshadow powder to set it. 

So I got a hit & miss for this round. But at least now I know where I can get Korean skincare and makeup at the best price and without the need to leave my home too! :)

Delayed Makeup Haul + Swatches

It was my first time attending the Estee Lauder warehouse sale and that sale was pure evil! To my purse and my bank account. So dangerous for us beauty product fans but you know how much we love the danger when it comes to beauty products!

My loot! A good mix of Bobbi Brown, MAC and Clinique items with a DKNY deodorant because everybody needs deodorant. Would you believe that I don't own any makeup items from these brands until this warehouse sale? The inner budget beauty in me is strong until that day. Let's start with the Bobbi Brown products...

This Bobbi Brown Translucent Powder is the travel size version and it was the last one there so a pat on my back for my sharp eye. Getting the smaller or travel size version of a product is a great way to test out the product before you go for the full-size version. So far after testing this out for a few times, I feel that my T-zone does stay matte but it didn't stay that way after 4 hours so maybe it's cause I didn't use a primer before my BB cream. But will be testing it more to really determine my feeling about it.

These Colour Correctors in Light Peach and Light Bisque are also travel sized. Bought these for my little sister since she wanted to try the concealers and she felt that it doesn't cover pimples well but I think these are more for dark circles concealing.

The Pot Rouge for Lips And Cheek in Hibiscus is one pretty reddish pink shade that I'm glad I took a gamble with!

So pretty when you want natural flushed cheeks look!

Snagged the Mini Long-Wear Cream Shadow Trio too since I was on a cream shadow craze. Mini versions are so easy to fit into into my makeup bag without taking up too much space.

From the top, Smoky Topaz is a lovely goldish taupe which will look awesome just on its own, Pink Sparkle is a light pink with slight gold shimmer and it will make a nice addition to your Korean eye makeup and Espresso Bean is a dark brown with micro glitters in it that will look awesome for a smokey eye. All colours are pigmented, waterproof and long-wearing! But the most long-lasting is the Espresso Bean. Let's head to my MAC loot...

These caught my eye immediately so I grabbed it before anyone can take it like a kiasu person. The green lipgloss is so pretty that I had to have it!

Looks scary in the tube but it actually comes out super sheer with different coloured micro glitters on them. The Cremesheen Glass has a better pigmentation than the rest and is not so sticky too.

OKAY I have a thing for gold, sparkly things and when I saw that they were selling the Prabal Gurung collection at a cheaper price, I had to have it. Look at the beautiful packaging and it has a slight weight to it too so you know it's not those cheap plastic packaging.

Open up to 2 of these pretty neutral shades that you can wear on its own or together. There was even a demo happening on how to use this palette amidst the chaos.

So happy to finally own a MAC eyeshadow palette and coming from the Prabal Gurung collab makes it even sweeter!

Another OMG I MUST HAVE IT moment was these travel sized eye products from the Cinderella collection! All limited edition collections always get sold out like in a day of its launch which is why I give up on trying to invest in any of it. But this was like a sign that I can actually own a limited edition collection that is Disney related so I AM VERY HAPPY! Also, I just watch Cinderella today and I can't help relating Game of Thrones to it because of the Prince and his right-hand man.

This is the MAC Studio Eye Gloss in Pearl Varnish which is a white gloss with pearl finish. It is one unique product which I have never heard of until then.

It's sticky and very sparkly that's for sure! I think I would use this on top of my eyeshadows to add some glitter.

This is the Fluidline in Macroviolet, a deep smoked violet with red pearl. It looks gorgeous and I can't wait to use it one day! 

Another Fluidline called Little Black Bow, a grey with white pearl. Another pretty colour that I don't have in my collection and one that I can't wait to wear. Now onto the Clinique products...

Grab 2 different mascaras to test out and will post the swatches soon! It's not waterproof though so that's a downer.

I got the All About Shadow Single in French Vanilla to try out since I have never tried their eyeshadows before.

It's said to have a Soft Matte finish but I had trouble getting some colour out to swatch and there was some fallout and a bit of glitter too. But maybe it will do better on top of an eye primer. Shall try that next time.

Grabbed a pack of the Chubby Stick™ Shadow Tint For Eyes too and in the shade 15-Biggest Blossom and 06-Mighty Moss.

I love these two colours! The pink seems to have a slight gold shimmer to it and so does the green.

There was so many of these Ermenegildo Zegna travel bags on sale so I grabbed one too because it's cheap, the size is just right for those short travels and the material is pretty good too!

This was a random purchase but hey, a girl needs her deodorant!

I was really bummed out that all the MAC lipsticks were sold out by the time I arrived which was at about 11am. Madness right? My total damage was RM800 after filtering the amount of items that I wanted to get which was really difficult! So painful for my bank account but it's worth it because these are my first makeup purchases from those brands! But I can't say I am excited for the next sale because it was really packed to the brim and the ladies were just fighting and pushing like cray and most of the good stuff were sold out really fast like the Origins masks, MAC lipsticks and Estee Lauder makeup. So I guess I have to be extra kiasu and wake up early to wait for the sale to open in order to get the good stuff in the future. Which I don't think I will be keen to do.

Get rid of red eyes with Rohto Arctic Eye Drops

Sometimes even when I'm wearing my glasses, my eyes tend to get red and dry from staring at the laptop for too long. But a girl's gotta work hard for her money. So I got myself the Rohto Arctic Redness Reliever Eye Drops (RM49 promo price) from Supermodel Secrets because I saw it in one of Michelle Phan's older Youtube videos. I've been watching her videos wayyy before she became such as successful entrepreneur and I really admire her for her perseverance and dedication to her passion. Anyway, let's get back to the eye drops!

You get a sealed packet with the eye drop container inside so you know there's no form of contamination in the packaging. I like the bottle packaging as well.

All the important info you should take a read before you start dropping the solution into your eye. Remember you can't use this with your contact lens! Remove your lens and wait for about 15 minutes before you use the eye drops or before putting on your contacts, put eye drops and wait for 15 minutes before inserting lens. Use the eye drops for 4 times a day MAX.

This is after I used the eye drops. Totally forgotten to take a before picture but you can see that my eyes have become really white and brighter a bit too. Since it states on the box there will be a cooling sensation, don't be surprised that you will feel a little sting for a few seconds the moment it hits your eye but then it will go away leaving your eyes feeling more energetic as it said on the box. But if you feel the sting for a long time then head to the doctors ASAP because you might be having a reaction from it.

I don't think I will be using this eye drops often since I am a frequent lens wearer and it's a bit of a hassle to wait before I can use the eye drops. If it is for contact lens wearer then I could get more use out of it. I am still hunting for a good contact lens eye drop that won't make my eyes feel dry when it's suppose to lubricate my eyes which is not the case for the brands in the pharmacy. Do recommend me some good ones if you know of any then I will check it out. :)